The effect of formative assessment on the radiology student's learning of the Physics courses

Applying different educational plans, teaching methods, and assessments have certain effects on the students’ learning and their scores. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effect of formative assessments (multiple quizzes) on the students’ learning of the Physics courses of radiology. In this semi-experimental study, two Physics courses were selected: Physics of Radiology (course “A”) and Radiobiology (course “B”). The courses were offered for one group of paramedical B.Sc. students (15 people) in Shahrekord University of Medical Sciences in 2009. During the educational semester, 8 formative assessments (quizzes) were performed for the course A; while, no quiz was applied for the course “B”. All other teaching conditions, midterm and final exams, etc. were roughly similar for the two courses. The scores of two other physical courses, offered with the same conditions, were compared with the scores of the courses A and B. Data was analyzed using independent t-test. The mean of the formative scores was 2.7±0.05 (out of 4). There was a significant difference between the midterm exams’ scores of the courses A and B (P<0.001). Likewise, a significant difference was seen between the final exams’ scores of the courses A and B (P<0.001). Furthermore, all student's final scores for the course A were higher than those for the course B. Finally, the mean scores of the course A was 22% higher than those for the course B (15.9±1.1 vs. 13±1.9). This study reveals that applying formative assessments during the educational semester can help radiology students to increase their learning in Physics course.